It’s Nightmare Season for the AnimalsAn Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Reasons like this are why millions of animals are shot and flee wounded
into the woods where they suffer in agony with many either dying from their
wounds or being killed by hungry predator animals eager to find easy prey.

It is also self-evident that even the most expert hunters shoot at
animals which then vanish in a flash so that the hunters have no idea of
whether or not they hit their mark.

A 2006 national survey put out by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
shows that only four percent of the country’s population hunts, with hunting
on the decline more and more with each passing year.

The hunting season is here once again. And while hunters strap on their
boots, don their hunting gear, take out their guns and head for the woods,
it is hardly a time of celebration for the animals soon to be victimized by
the hunting exploits of the hunters. No, for the animals it is the season of
the nightmare.

Though they would be the last to admit it, most hunters are amateur
shooters whose weapons lie unused except during the hunting season. But, as
with any skill, it takes practice to achieve expert marksmanship, and very
few hunters keep up their skills. That’s why most hunters are far from
expert. And that applies equally to hunters as they age and their vision
begins to lose its focus. Reasons like this are why millions of animals are
shot and flee wounded into the woods where they suffer in agony with many
either dying from their wounds or being killed by hungry predator animals
eager to find easy prey.

One hunter told this writer that most regular hunters, if they are
honest, will admit that they have shot animals which then escape wounded
into the underbrush and woods. That particular hunter could count at least
five times where it had happened with him and he was an expert shot. It is
also self-evident that even the most expert hunters shoot at animals which
then vanish in a flash so that the hunters have no idea of whether or not
they hit their mark.

Some hunters stalk their prey with bows and arrows. But according to the
nonprofit Animal Rescue Society, a member of the Maine Bowhunters Alliance
estimated that 50 percent of animals who are shot with crossbows are wounded
but not killed. Another study of radio-collared, white-tailed deer conducted
by the Department of Zoology and Oklahoma Cooperative Fish and Wildlife
Research Unit, Oklahoma State University, found that of 22 deer which had
been shot with arrows, 11 were wounded but escaped from the hunters. Some
hunters have no hesitation in admitting that they have wounded deer and then
could not track them as indicated by comments on the website Rub N Scrapes -
How to Track Deer After the Shot. For readers with computers who want
photographic evidence of such incidences try the following link
www.denverpost.com/search/ci_11298584 or type in www.google.com in your
browser window and when that window opens search for “deer shot with an
arrow.”

Hunters rationalize shooting deer with the claim that they are just
culling excessive animal populations. But this is mostly nothing but a
pretext for hunting promoted by local and state governments in order to
increase revenues from licensing and add to the profits of businesses
related to hunting. Food shortages are sometimes responsible for increased
deer populations, but these shortages invariably turn out to be human-made
and can be alleviated by many nonlethal methods including contraception and
deer relocation programs. Claims made by some hunters that their kill is
donated to government programs for feeding the needy have little merit when
measured against costs and just serve as additional excuses for hunting.
Similarly, hunting websites claiming that venison is a healthy
low-cholesterol food are false, according to USDA statistics that show deer
with a far higher cholesterol count than beef, pork, or chicken. Deer, like
all animal protein, when consumed is also a disease producing substance in
relation to cancer, heart disease, and the other killer diseases that plague
society as revealed by the most progressive scientific research.

Hunting is a $1.5 billion industry which pushes the idea that hunting is an
heroic sport with roots that somehow trace back to frontier days where men
sought to prove their manhood by setting out on some wilderness trail. But a
noncompetitive activity that just involves the strong killing the weak is
hardly a sport. A sport constitutes fair play in which both sides have an
equal chance. Hunting is designated a sport only because the media
mindlessly and dutifully continues to repeat this fantasy mantra proclaimed
by hunters and the hunting industry.

Another false concept that needs to be challenged is the idea that
hunting is approved by almost everyone. Those who oppose hunting should
recognize that they comprise the vast majority, not a small minority. A 2006
national survey put out by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows that
only four percent of the country’s population hunts, with hunting on the
decline more and more with each passing year. Much of the reason for the
decline concerns the ethics of using superior human technology to kill and
cause so much suffering to innocent animals that have harmed no one and have
no means of defense. Claims by hunters that it doesn’t matter because
animals do not really suffer have no basis in fact and have been disproved
in many scientific studies.

People who are concerned with living righteously take the following words
by the great 20th century theologian Albert Schweitzer to heart:
“Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full
breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit
itself to humankind.” The humane treatment of animals is not only a large
part of the equation for maintaining the necessary biodiversity required for
meeting the challenges facing our planet in the 21st century, but it is
important for the sense that as individuals we are leading a responsible and
fulfilled life that has an ethical basis at its core. Let us remember this
each and every time the hunting season rolls around until the majority rules
and the nightmare of hurting and killing innocent animals in that infamous
“sport” called hunting comes to an end.

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